India’s market regulator has begun personal hearings in its bid to recover gains it alleges Kingdon Capital Management made by shorting Adani Group stocks days before Hindenburg Research’s 2023 report wiped out $150 billion in the conglomerate’s market value, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The hearings come more than two years after SEBI’s 2024 show-cause proceedings against the accused entities and run alongside a separate SEBI effort to stop disputed fund assets from disappearing in a Mauritius insolvency case.
The Paper Trail SEBI Is Relying On
SEBI’s case is built on a documented timeline. Its show-cause notice states Hindenburg shared a draft of its Adani report exclusively with Kingdon on November 30, 2022, nearly two months before the report’s public release.
Kingdon and Kotak Mahindra International Ltd. (KMIL) then signed an investment-advisory agreement on January 5, 2023, under which Kingdon advised KMIL on trades for K India Opportunities Fund Limited – Class F, a Mauritius-domiciled, SEBI-registered foreign portfolio investor.
On January 10, 2023, the fund’s derivatives account was activated, building a short position of 850,000 Adani Enterprises shares, a short sale being the practice of selling borrowed shares and buying them back cheaper once the price falls.
Hindenburg published its report on January 24, 2023. Adani Enterprises shares fell as much as 59% between then and February 22, 2023. SEBI’s notice alleges six entities linked to the trade collectively gained $22.25 million and separately alleges a profit-sharing arrangement between Hindenburg and Kingdon.
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From Show-Cause Notice To Personal Hearings
SEBI’s 46-page show-cause notice, delivered to Hindenburg, founder Nathan Anderson, and the Kingdon-linked entities on June 27, 2024, alleged the group violated securities-fraud rules by trading on non-public information.
Kingdon has pushed back, telling SEBI it had done nothing improper by entering a standard research-services arrangement with an independent third party. Kotak, in a July 2024 statement, said Hindenburg was never an investor in the fund and that all investments were made by principals in their own right.
All the named parties are based overseas, which SEBI’s proceedings say is why hearings are only starting now, the parties took time to respond. SEBI maintains it has jurisdiction regardless, since the trades themselves were executed in India.
Hindenburg may add little further to the record: founder Nathan Anderson disbanded the firm on January 15, 2025, citing personal burnout rather than the SEBI matter.
Neither Hindenburg, Kingdon, Kotak, nor SEBI responded to requests for comment on the current hearings; Hindenburg had previously dismissed SEBI’s allegations as “nonsense.”
The Mauritius Fight Over Fund Assets
While hearings proceed, SEBI is trying to ensure there’s something left to recover. It has opposed court-supervised insolvency proceedings opened for the K India Opportunities Fund in Mauritius, which could see fund assets distributed before any SEBI recovery order takes effect.
Mauritius’ Supreme Court appointed the managing director of restructuring firm Quantuma as receiver over the fund in June 2026.
In the first week of July 2026, SEBI asked the receiver to protect assets that could potentially be used to satisfy a future recovery order. It remains unclear whether Kingdon, as the fund’s beneficiary, had already received or redeemed any of the disputed gains. Quantuma declined to comment.
The case is being watched as a test of how SEBI pursues offshore entities and recovers assets held outside India, relevant for anyone tracking how foreign portfolio flows into Indian equities get scrutinised.
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Not To Be Confused With Adani’s Own Case
This enforcement track is separate from SEBI’s probe into Adani Group itself over the same Hindenburg report. In orders dated September 18, 2025, SEBI closed proceedings examining whether Adani entities used related companies, including Adicorp Enterprises, to route funds and inflate share prices, finding those specific violations were not established.
That matter addressed disclosure and related-party rules for Adani entities; the Kingdon case addresses whether traders profited from advance knowledge of the report that triggered the selloff. The two proceedings involve different respondents, different allegations, and different outcomes so far.
Bottom Line
SEBI has a live hearing process against Kingdon-linked entities over $22.25 million in disputed gains and a parallel effort to preserve fund assets in Mauritius before any recovery order is finalised.
Whether those assets are still there to recover, given Reuters could not confirm if Kingdon had already redeemed its position, is the open question the Mauritius insolvency proceeding will help answer.
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Disclaimer: This article is based on SEBI’s show-cause notice, its September 2025 orders, and reporting from Reuters and other cited outlets. It is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. No final SEBI recovery order has been issued in the Kingdon matter. Readers should consult a SEBI-registered financial advisor before making investment decisions related to Adani Group securities.
